Trapping for Preppers

In a survival
situation, traps can capture animals that provide us
precious calories from meat and fat. Think of them as
little hunters that you put out to do your work for you
while you are off accomplishing other tasks. There are
seemingly as many different traps as there are critters
to catch. To us, learning trapping for preppers is one
of the essential survival skills.

Trapping for preppers is an essential
part of most survival strategies. By setting up a number of well-placed
traps which you check regularly, you can save yourself a lot of energy.
As with most hunting and gathering strategies, it is best to set up your
trap line at a bit of a distance from your bug out location. Should an
extended perimeter from your bug out location become too dangerous, you
will not have exhausted the game in the immediate area. In addition,
while hunting can certainly be productive, it also uses up valuable
calories, something that you simply can’t afford to lose during a
survival situation. For that reason, as well as increasing your chances
of finding food, you need to know how to build a wide range of hunting
traps.

There
are hundreds of different variations of
survival traps and snares that you can
use to procure wild game. At their most
basic, they are designed to choke,
crush, hang, or entangle wild animals,
and are an important skill to know for
anyone who spends any amount of time in
the wilderness.

The
best thing to know about trapping for
preppers is the best survival traps are
usually very simple to make and can
usually be made with natural materials
if you know what you’re doing. That
means to be effective; you need to
practice these skills before you find
yourself in a situation where your life
depends on them.

Where
to place them

In a
survival situation, the more traps you
set, the greater your chances are of
capturing food. That means you need to
be always building new ones, constantly
maintaining and fixing existing ones,
and always on the lookout for good
places to set them.

When looking for places
to set your traps, make sure you’re
always on the lookout for:

Known game trails
and runs.

Known watering
holes and feeding sites.

Animal tracks and
droppings.

Chewed
vegetation.

Nesting sites and
den holes.

Figuring out where to
set your traps is probably the most
challenging part of the equation,
especially if you don’t have a good
grasp on animal behaviors and tracking.

A good trap in
the wrong location is a bad trap!

The most
common types of survival
traps.

Typical
survival traps usually
fall into one of two
categories: snares and
deadfalls. While there
are a couple other
categories, most of what
you’ll probably use will
be a variation of one of
these two types of
traps.

Building
a
Survival
Snare

A snare
is
essentially
a small
noose
that
tightens
around
an
animals
neck as
it
passes
through
the
hole.
They are
usually
placed
on known
animal
trails
or right
outside
of den
holes.

Make
sure
the
noose
is
large
enough
to
allow
the
animal’s
head
to
pass
through
it.

As
the
animal
moves
through
the
snare
it
should
tighten
around
its
neck.

The
more
the
animal
struggles
to
get
loose,
the
tighter
the
snare
will
get.

Building
a
Deadfall
Trap

Unlike
snares
which
are
meant to
choke
the
animal,
Deadfalls
are
designed
to crush
the
animal
once the
trigger
is
released.

Getting
the
pieces
to work
together:

Carve
a
flat
screwdriver
point
on
one
stick;
this
will
become
the
vertical
post.

Carve
another
screwdriver
point
on
one
end
of a
stick
and
a
notch
near
the
opposite
end;
this
will
be
the
diagonal
stick.

Carve
a
notch
at
one
end
of
the
third
stick,
and
carve
a
point
for
bait.

Lay
out
the
sticks
so
they
look
like
the
number
4,
the
line
up
the
vertical
post
and
cut
a
notch
on
the
horizontal
bait
stick
so
it
catches
the
carved
square
edge
on
the
post.

Put
the
three
sticks
together
so
the
notches
catch
each
other
and
hold
up
the
deadfall
weight.

Top Field
Guides for Learning How
to Trap

If you’re
not a seasoned hunter,
or have never actively
tracked an animal, then
I recommend picking up a
good field guide, and
really taking some time
to study its contents.
Learning how to build a
good trap is important,
but knowing how to track
animals, spot game
trails, and
understanding where to
set the traps is the key
to actually catching
something. We will
suggest the following
field guides, they are
all a great introduction
to what you should be
looking for.